| "Back Off Boogaloo" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 UK picture sleeve | ||||
| Single by Ringo Starr | ||||
| B-side | "Blindman" | |||
| Released | 17 March 1972 | |||
| Recorded | September 1971 | |||
| Studio | Apple, London | |||
| Genre | Rock, glam rock | |||
| Length | 3:16 | |||
| Label | Apple | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Richard Starkey | |||
| Producer(s) | George Harrison | |||
| Ringo Starr singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Back Off Boogaloo" on YouTube | ||||
"Back Off Boogaloo" is a song by the English rock musician Ringo Starr that was released as a non-album single in March 1972. Starr's former Beatles bandmate George Harrison produced the recording and helped Starr write the song, although he remained uncredited as a co-writer until 2017. Recording took place in London shortly after the pair had appeared together at Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh shows in August 1971. The single was a follow-up to Starr's 1971 hit song "It Don't Come Easy" and continued his successful run as a solo artist. "Back Off Boogaloo" peaked at number 2 in Britain and Canada, and number 9 on America's Billboard Hot 100. It remains Starr's highest-charting single in the United Kingdom.
The title for the song was inspired by English singer-songwriter Marc Bolan. Several commentators have interpreted the lyrics as an attack on Paul McCartney, reflecting Starr's disdain for the music McCartney had made as a solo artist over the previous two years. "Back Off Boogaloo" demonstrates the influence of glam rock on Starr, who directed the documentary film Born to Boogie about Bolan's band T. Rex around this time. Described by one biographer as a "high-energy in-your-face rocker",[1] the song features a prominent slide guitar part by Harrison and contributions from musicians Gary Wright and Klaus Voormann. Starr made a promotional film for the single in which he is followed around the grounds of John Lennon's Tittenhurst Park property by a Frankenstein-like monster. The single's B-side, "Blindman", was originally intended as the theme song to the 1971 film of the same name, a Spaghetti Western in which Starr had a starring role.
Starr re-recorded "Back Off Boogaloo" for both his 1981 album Stop and Smell the Roses and his 2017 album Give More Love. A collaboration with American singer Harry Nilsson, the 1981 version incorporates lyrics from Beatles songs such as "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Good Day Sunshine" and "Baby, You're a Rich Man". The original recording has appeared on Starr's compilation albums Blast from Your Past and Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr, and as a bonus track on his remastered 1974 studio album Goodnight Vienna. After his return to touring in 1989, Starr performed "Back Off Boogaloo" regularly in concert with the various incarnations of his All-Starr Band.